Stefan Mileschin

Samsung is the cock on the dunghill in Gartner's Supply Chain Top 25 research of companies based in the Asia Pacific region.

The Korean giant beat Chinese companies Lenovo, Huawei and Korea's Hyundai Motors in the annual research, based on revenue growth, return on assets (ROA), inventory and peer opinion, in a bid to raise awareness of the supply chain discipline and how it impacts business results.

Of the top 15 supply chain companies from the Asia Pacific region, five, including Canon, Honda, Komatsu, Seven & I Holdings and Toyota were identified as having their head offices in Japan, while four - Hyundai, Hyundai Heavy Industries, LG, Samsung - were based in Korea.

Huawei and Lenovo made up China's offerings, while Woolworths flew the flag for Australia and Tata Motors put India on the grid.

Making some waves for Singapore was Flextronics and, in Taiwan, Asustek took the prize.

Vikas Sarangdhar, research director at Gartner said that demand in the Asia Pacific was growing. However he warned that inflation, rising costs and a tightening labour market "posed challenges for companies in the region.”

He added that economic challenges in the rest of the world also "amplified the risks" pointing out that a further sharp fall in exports to advanced economies and capital outflows would impact Asia both directly and through knock-on effects on domestic demand.

Samsung once again found itself at the top of the list, which Gartner said was "dominated by high tech, consumer electronics, automotive, retail and industrial products companies."

However, the company pointed out that most Japanese companies were still recovering from the natural and economic crises of 2011 and were only just now regaining their stability.

According to Gartner research director Debashis Tarafdar, Asia Pacific supply chain leaders have maintained momentum in the difficult economic environment by re-configuring their supply chains while staying focused on a demand-driven strategy.

He said companies leading the top supply chains in Asia Pacific had "demonstrated capabilities in demand management, operational excellence and innovation.”

They had done this through using "best practices" including the almost incomprehensible phrase "demand sensing and shaping", as well as "segmentation" and "collaboration", to help manage "demand volatility" and deliver "predictable" results.

However, it wasn't good news for the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Wilmar International and Wesfarmers which remained out in the cold as a result of not enough votes to get them onto the list.


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